Wall Street seeks top female athlete to join men’s titleholder

“People have a chance to run 5Ks or 10Ks for various charity events, but rarely do you get a chance to run a mile on a track in a competitive situation,” decathlon co-founder Dave Maloney said in a telephone interview. “It’s an opportunity to give more people a chance to participate and donate. Not everyone has time to commit to training for all 10 events.”

There are three running events in the RBC Decathlon, at distances of 40 yards, 400 meters and 800 meters.

Also in the one-day competition are pull-ups, a football throw, an agility drill, rowing, vertical jump, bench press and dips -- a triceps exercise using one’s own weight.

“We saw last year we had guys who were All-Americans in college and do triathlons and marathons now,” said Rubin, who pulled out his win last year in the final event. “It’s definitely a top-tier athletic event with people who are constantly training and working out. It’s always fun to see what you can do against high-level competition.”

Award Winners

Awards are presented to the top three finishers in the men’s and women’s divisions, as well as the top executive performer, the winners in three age groups (under 30, 30-39 and over 40), the top fundraiser and the top team.

Brian Kuritzky, a 26-year-old security analyst at the Goldman Sachs Group and a former Cornell University soccer player, was last year’s top individual fundraiser with over $90,000 in pledges.

Fundraising is also driven by so-called charity bets, with competitors generating donations by surpassing pre-event goals or benchmarks. Jason Price, a former All-American sprinter at the University of Southern California and a prime brokerage sales analyst for JPMorgan Chase & Co., last year triggered a $100,000 donation for any competitor who broke the event record in the 400 meters.